The present invention relates to an optical inspection apparatus, and particularly such apparatus which can observe or photograph the object to be inspected with variable magnification.
Eye inspections are currently conducted widely as one means of diagnosis for disease prevention, and photographs of the eye fundus provide useful informations. Multiple photographs have increasingly been utilized for the above purpose. Under this situation demands have been increasing for development of a wide angle camera for the inspection of an eye fundus which can cover a wider photographic field, thereby requiring less photographs for inspecting patients who are diagnosed. On the other hand, demands have been increasing for development of an eye fundus camera which can take an enlarged photograph with a narrow field angle. In order to meet with the above demands for two different types of camera, an apparatus has been proposed and known, in which the objective lens in the optical system of an eye fundus camera is interchanged so as to enable both the wide angle photography and the narrow angle photography. However, this conventionally known apparatus requires considerable time and effort for interchanging the objective lens, and at each time of the interchange, it is required to align of the optical axis between the eye to be inspected and the objective lens, to adjust the operative distance, and to focus again.